Social commentary from a Hermit on the loose

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Safety, security guards vs Safe communities and Accountabilit

I have a problem with more and more security in my open spaces where I would have liked to be safe without guards protecting me. More and more guards and police will not solve the problem of security.

By militarizing our open spaces and and communities we are killing our freedom guard by guard. We are manifesting our insecurities about people around us in a destructive and violent way. We are not considering alternatives to being forceful, aggressive and scared. We are setting and example of violence and aggression as only option to Fear. This is what we are teaching our kids as a response to fear. Violence begets Violence

As a society and a community there are alternatives in place that are not looked at and considered., the alternatives to militarizing our communities and open spaces are;

1. Involvement,

` not just in security and guarding but in schools and open forums, discussing different values

2. Living a less violent lifestyle in our homes and in our relationships with one another. Living less violent values with one another, showing the value of care and participation

3. Time, with our kids and family and friends discussing our shared values as a family and community creating closeness

4. Less work. More time does not equate to less work, but it will help. we need to reclaim our time off to spend with ourselves.

5. Reclaiming our streets and open spaces. The only people lately I see in our parks and communal open spaces are vagrants and homeless people. Where are the children and parents.

6. Play more, we need to bring play back to our children. Not just with the parents but to kids in the community, allow kids back into the streets and reclaim playing and activities in or open spaces,

7. Seeing strangers not as dangerous but possible protectors. We live in a society rife with economic apartheid. We don’t mix with people that are not as fortunate as I am. We keep people that are like that out of our communities and our suburbs. We have become victims to our fear of strangers. What happens in the Townships stay in the Townships.

As long as economic inequality and exploitation of the less fortunate citizens continue we should not sleep safe in our own beds. We are seeing an expression of economic deprivation in levels of crime in our societies. We are buying our economic success on the back of exploitation. Listening to a expert on crime on the radio recently, there is no clear answer to why crime and criminals are so violent in South Africa. It seems to a large extent it is an expression of broader violence in our communities and society.

We are suffering from the malaise of non attachment with our fellow citizens. We don’t care what happens to them as long as it happens outside my security village. The fortunate ones that have a security compound in which they stay pays scant interest to those of our fellow citizens that cant afford that. Our police is in disarray because of corruption, our municipalities cant provide basic services.

And the bottom of this is corruption, selling of influence to the highest bidder. We see that accountability and responsibility is diminished due to favoritism and that uniquely South African word cadre deployment. As much as those are issues, my sense is that it is a reflection of where we are as a society , country and citizens.

We can blame whomever we want for whatever we want. At the end of the day most of these ills are related to economic disenfranchisement. A catching up with the Jones’s as quickly as possible.

We are a scarred and scared society, Scarred by the legacy of Apartheid and its violent nature on us as people. We are scared of the different people’s of our country because we don’t know them.

We are plucking the fruits of a racial divisive system that has been unfortunately been perpetuated by the ruling class as they took over the system of patronage and benefits. All that has changed is the colour of the beneficiaries.

We need a more open society not one protected by more security guard s and more police.

Freedom is not bought on the back of exploitation and another security guard.